Apple Stores

Apple Stores will now be able to fix the broken screen on your iPhone 5s without having to send the device out to an off-site location. The service is being rolled out to Apple Stores across the US, although at this stage there is no confirmation as to whether all locations would be able to service broken screens.

Back in August, before the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were announced, Apple launched an in-store iPhone trade-in program. Right now, it's exclusive to the U.S, but a new report from the folks at 9to5Mac suggests it will soon expand to British shores:

The smartphone aftermarket is red hot these days, with U.S. carriers already diving in with greedy hands open, and Apple Retail rumored to be getting into the game as well. With new iPhones hitting the shelves every year - including rumored iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c this year - and some segment always looking to upgrade early, getting value from those trade-ins in more price-sensitive and emerging markets is just too attractive a proposition for anyone to pass up. iMore's been able to independently confirm that information about the trade-in program is making its way into retail, but Mark Gurman has a ton of details up already on 9to5Mac:

Apple Stores will reportedly be changing how they market and sell the iPhone, in hopes that more phones will be sold through their own Apple Store retail locations. This according to comments Tim Cook was said to have made at Apple's annual retail leadership gathering. Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac:

There have been some fantastic Apple Store designs already, everything from the glass cube in New York to the glass cylinder in Shanghai, but some recent designs for a massive glass roof in Santa Monica, a redesign of the glass cube on 5th Ave., and a spectacular design for Grand Central Station -- not to mention the enormous new Mothership in Cupertino -- show that Apple's ready to take things to another level.

Apple already makes some of the best phone, tablet, and computer hardware in the word -- precision crafted aluminum and glass. Do they really have to push the envelope in architecture and retail design as well? No, but they want to. They could spend less on the stores. They could do less. But they consider it an investment. They believe it matters. That's what makes Apple, Apple. They're dragging us, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the future.

Now if I could just get them to build one of those giant glass tower Flasgships in Montreal's Old Port. Where would you want one?